Democrats Abroad New Zealand
4.30.2006
A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition (WashingtonPost.com)
By Mark Feldstein
Saturday, April 29, 2006; Page A17
In an earlier life I spent 20 years as an investigative reporter, getting subpoenaed and sued in the United States, and censored and physically harassed in other parts of the globe. But when I switched careers to academia, I thought such scrapes would come to an end. I was wrong.
On March 3 two FBI agents showed up at my home, flashing their badges and demanding to see 25-year-old documents that I have been reading as part of my research for a book I'm writing about Jack Anderson, the crusading investigative columnist who died in December.
I was surprised, to put it mildly, by the FBI's sudden interest in journalism history. I asked what crimes the agents were investigating.
"Violations of the Espionage Act," was the response. The Espionage Act dates to 1917 and was used to imprison dissidents who opposed World War I.
(More ... A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition) ¶ 12:29 0 comments
Saturday, April 29, 2006; Page A17
In an earlier life I spent 20 years as an investigative reporter, getting subpoenaed and sued in the United States, and censored and physically harassed in other parts of the globe. But when I switched careers to academia, I thought such scrapes would come to an end. I was wrong.
On March 3 two FBI agents showed up at my home, flashing their badges and demanding to see 25-year-old documents that I have been reading as part of my research for a book I'm writing about Jack Anderson, the crusading investigative columnist who died in December.
I was surprised, to put it mildly, by the FBI's sudden interest in journalism history. I asked what crimes the agents were investigating.
"Violations of the Espionage Act," was the response. The Espionage Act dates to 1917 and was used to imprison dissidents who opposed World War I.
(More ... A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition) ¶ 12:29 0 comments
Scathing Nuclear Report As US Brands Iran Enemy No 1 (Guardian.co.uk)
· Tehran says it 'doesn't give a damn' about inspectors
· US and UK lead calls for action as crisis deepens
Ian Traynor in Zagreb and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Saturday April 29, 2006
The Guardian
The US administration branded Iran public enemy number one, calling it one of the world's most active sponsors of terrorism, as the UN nuclear inspectors revealed that Tehran has successfully enriched uranium and is racing ahead with its nuclear programme.
The report from Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to the UN security council shifted the nuclear dispute on to a new plane, with the US and Britain leading a campaign for enforcement and punitive action against Iran.
Tehran said it did not "give a damn" about the verdict from Dr ElBaradei and what it might lead to.
The US state department's annual report on terrorism worldwide described Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism.
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Scathing nuclear report as US brands Iran enemy No 1) ¶ 12:19 0 comments
· US and UK lead calls for action as crisis deepens
Ian Traynor in Zagreb and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Saturday April 29, 2006
The Guardian
The US administration branded Iran public enemy number one, calling it one of the world's most active sponsors of terrorism, as the UN nuclear inspectors revealed that Tehran has successfully enriched uranium and is racing ahead with its nuclear programme.
The report from Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to the UN security council shifted the nuclear dispute on to a new plane, with the US and Britain leading a campaign for enforcement and punitive action against Iran.
Tehran said it did not "give a damn" about the verdict from Dr ElBaradei and what it might lead to.
The US state department's annual report on terrorism worldwide described Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism.
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Scathing nuclear report as US brands Iran enemy No 1) ¶ 12:19 0 comments
4.28.2006
'Grannies' Charged in Peace Protest Are Acquitted (NYTimes.com)
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: April 27, 2006
They came, they hobbled, they conquered.
Eighteen "grannies" who were swept up by New York City police, handcuffed, loaded into paddywagons and jailed for four and a half hours were acquitted today of charges that they blocked the entrance to the military recruitment center in Times Square when they tried to enlist.
After six days of a non-jury trial, the grannies — who said they wanted to offer their lives for those of younger soldiers in Iraq — and dozens of supporters filled a cramped courtroom today in Manhattan Criminal Court to hear whether they would be found guilty of two counts of disorderly conduct for refusing to move, which could have put them in jail for 15 days.
The 18 women — gray haired, some carrying canes, one legally blind, one with a walker — listened gravely and in obvious suspense as Judge Neil Ross delivered a carefully worded 15-minute speech in which he said that his verdict was not a referendum on the Police Department, the anti-war message of the grannies, or, indeed, their very grandmotherhood.
But, he said, there was credible evidence that the grandmothers had left room for people to enter the recruitment center, had they wanted to, and that therefore, they had been wrongly arrested. He then pronounced them not guilty, concluding: "The defendants are discharged."
The women, sitting in the jury box at the invitation of the judge, to make it easier for them to see and hear, let out a collective "Oh!" and burst into applause, rushing forward, as quickly as elderly women could rush, to hug and kiss their lawyers, Norman Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Earl Ward.
(More ... 'Grannies' Charged in Peace Protest Are Acquitted - New York Times) ¶ 08:03 0 comments
Published: April 27, 2006
They came, they hobbled, they conquered.
Eighteen "grannies" who were swept up by New York City police, handcuffed, loaded into paddywagons and jailed for four and a half hours were acquitted today of charges that they blocked the entrance to the military recruitment center in Times Square when they tried to enlist.
After six days of a non-jury trial, the grannies — who said they wanted to offer their lives for those of younger soldiers in Iraq — and dozens of supporters filled a cramped courtroom today in Manhattan Criminal Court to hear whether they would be found guilty of two counts of disorderly conduct for refusing to move, which could have put them in jail for 15 days.
The 18 women — gray haired, some carrying canes, one legally blind, one with a walker — listened gravely and in obvious suspense as Judge Neil Ross delivered a carefully worded 15-minute speech in which he said that his verdict was not a referendum on the Police Department, the anti-war message of the grannies, or, indeed, their very grandmotherhood.
But, he said, there was credible evidence that the grandmothers had left room for people to enter the recruitment center, had they wanted to, and that therefore, they had been wrongly arrested. He then pronounced them not guilty, concluding: "The defendants are discharged."
The women, sitting in the jury box at the invitation of the judge, to make it easier for them to see and hear, let out a collective "Oh!" and burst into applause, rushing forward, as quickly as elderly women could rush, to hug and kiss their lawyers, Norman Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Earl Ward.
(More ... 'Grannies' Charged in Peace Protest Are Acquitted - New York Times) ¶ 08:03 0 comments
4.27.2006
As Gas Prices Climb, Wind Power Wins Over New Fans (CommonDreams.org)
Published on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 by Knight Ridder
by Robert S. Boyd
WASHINGTON - Thanks to $3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil, wind power - the once-wimpy little brother of the energy industry - is putting on muscle and gaining favor.
Sleek white wind turbines, 25 stories tall, rise from the plains of West Texas in Big Spring. (Carolyn Mary Bauman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Its backers promote wind as a clean, cheap, endlessly renewable way to make electricity that can help reduce the nation's reliance on high-priced, perhaps undependable foreign sources and thereby enhance national security.
"There's been a key change in attitude in the last year," said James Lyons, an official at GE Global Research, a branch of General Electric Co. based in Niskayuna, N.Y. "Energy security is driving this."
"The culture is shifting," said Alexander Karsner, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy. "People are coming to see the importance of energy independence."
Critics say wind energy is unreliable, unsightly, harmful to wildlife and economically viable only because of government tax credits.
Nevertheless, "wind power is becoming a force to be reckoned with," said Clinton Andrews, a professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Andrews and others spoke at a conference of industry executives, government officials and energy experts in Washington last week.
(More ... As Gas Prices Climb, Wind Power Wins over New Fans) ¶ 11:03 0 comments
by Robert S. Boyd
WASHINGTON - Thanks to $3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil, wind power - the once-wimpy little brother of the energy industry - is putting on muscle and gaining favor.
Sleek white wind turbines, 25 stories tall, rise from the plains of West Texas in Big Spring. (Carolyn Mary Bauman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Its backers promote wind as a clean, cheap, endlessly renewable way to make electricity that can help reduce the nation's reliance on high-priced, perhaps undependable foreign sources and thereby enhance national security.
"There's been a key change in attitude in the last year," said James Lyons, an official at GE Global Research, a branch of General Electric Co. based in Niskayuna, N.Y. "Energy security is driving this."
"The culture is shifting," said Alexander Karsner, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy. "People are coming to see the importance of energy independence."
Critics say wind energy is unreliable, unsightly, harmful to wildlife and economically viable only because of government tax credits.
Nevertheless, "wind power is becoming a force to be reckoned with," said Clinton Andrews, a professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Andrews and others spoke at a conference of industry executives, government officials and energy experts in Washington last week.
(More ... As Gas Prices Climb, Wind Power Wins over New Fans) ¶ 11:03 0 comments
4.25.2006
Bush's Third Term (LATimes.com)
EDITORIAL
April 23, 2006
IF PRESIDENT BUSH HOPES the "shake-up" of his administration initiated last week will re-energize his listless presidency, he's bound to be disappointed. A far more audacious makeover is needed — one that sends Vice President Dick Cheney into early retirement.
Second terms are notoriously difficult for presidents. For President Bush, it has been disastrous. His swaggering November 2004 news conference — at which he bragged "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it" — seems from another era. Whatever political capital existed he has squandered with the Iraq war, the Valerie Plame leak inquiry and his ill-advised plan to partly privatize Social Security. His one victory — getting two reliable conservative jurists on the U.S. Supreme Court — is no doubt an enduring one. But there's nothing else.
Hence the yearning for a fresh start, the illusion of a third term. Ronald Reagan, another president hobbled by a second-term scandal, did manage to jump-start his presidency in its last years by bringing new players into his inner circle and engaging in ambitious arms-reduction talks with the Soviets.
Alas, Bush doesn't seem inclined to be that bold. The president has named a new chief of staff and budget director, but this is a merely a case of old loyalists getting new titles. The White House also sent much-pummeled press secretary Scott McClellan packing and, in what seems more like truth in packaging than a real change, relieved arch-political operator Karl Rove of his responsibilities for domestic policy.
(More ... Bush's third term - Los Angeles Times) ¶ 12:00 0 comments
April 23, 2006
IF PRESIDENT BUSH HOPES the "shake-up" of his administration initiated last week will re-energize his listless presidency, he's bound to be disappointed. A far more audacious makeover is needed — one that sends Vice President Dick Cheney into early retirement.
Second terms are notoriously difficult for presidents. For President Bush, it has been disastrous. His swaggering November 2004 news conference — at which he bragged "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it" — seems from another era. Whatever political capital existed he has squandered with the Iraq war, the Valerie Plame leak inquiry and his ill-advised plan to partly privatize Social Security. His one victory — getting two reliable conservative jurists on the U.S. Supreme Court — is no doubt an enduring one. But there's nothing else.
Hence the yearning for a fresh start, the illusion of a third term. Ronald Reagan, another president hobbled by a second-term scandal, did manage to jump-start his presidency in its last years by bringing new players into his inner circle and engaging in ambitious arms-reduction talks with the Soviets.
Alas, Bush doesn't seem inclined to be that bold. The president has named a new chief of staff and budget director, but this is a merely a case of old loyalists getting new titles. The White House also sent much-pummeled press secretary Scott McClellan packing and, in what seems more like truth in packaging than a real change, relieved arch-political operator Karl Rove of his responsibilities for domestic policy.
(More ... Bush's third term - Los Angeles Times) ¶ 12:00 0 comments
4.23.2006
We Can't 'Drill Our Way Out of 'Oil Crisis, Dems Say (CNN.com )
Saturday, April 22, 2006; Posted: 1:16 p.m. EDT (17:16 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer gasoline prices continue to soar as the Bush administration places too much emphasis on drilling reserves and not enough on alternative fuels, Democrats said Saturday.
In his party's weekly radio address, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida noted that Brazil has announced it will achieve energy independence this year, something the United States has sought since the country's first oil crisis in the 1970s.
"In Brazil, drivers are filling up their cars with ethanol instead of gasoline," Nelson said. "And today in America, President Bush says, 'We have a serious problem. America is addicted to oil."'
Nelson said Bush acknowledges the problem but refuses to enact policies to address the issue.
"The administration's emphasis is on drilling, a strategy many experts say won't make a dent in the U.S. oil problem," he said.
Nelson noted how the United States has just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves yet consumes 25 percent of oil production.
"We cannot drill our way out of this problem," he said.
(More ... CNN.com - We can't 'drill our way out of' oil crisis, Dems say - Apr 22, 2006) ¶ 09:34 0 comments
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer gasoline prices continue to soar as the Bush administration places too much emphasis on drilling reserves and not enough on alternative fuels, Democrats said Saturday.
In his party's weekly radio address, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida noted that Brazil has announced it will achieve energy independence this year, something the United States has sought since the country's first oil crisis in the 1970s.
"In Brazil, drivers are filling up their cars with ethanol instead of gasoline," Nelson said. "And today in America, President Bush says, 'We have a serious problem. America is addicted to oil."'
Nelson said Bush acknowledges the problem but refuses to enact policies to address the issue.
"The administration's emphasis is on drilling, a strategy many experts say won't make a dent in the U.S. oil problem," he said.
Nelson noted how the United States has just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves yet consumes 25 percent of oil production.
"We cannot drill our way out of this problem," he said.
(More ... CNN.com - We can't 'drill our way out of' oil crisis, Dems say - Apr 22, 2006) ¶ 09:34 0 comments
4.22.2006
US Ambassador Delay 'Unconscionable' (ABC.net.au)
Saturday, April 22, 2006. 10:33am (AEST)
A cabinet member from the first Bush administration says the length of time it has taken the United States Government to appoint a new ambassador to Australia is unconscionable.
US Justice Department lawyer Robert McCallum is going through the Senate confirmation process in the US to replace Tom Schieffer, who left the job 15 months ago.
The former US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, has told Lateline the delay has been unfortunate.
"It's been unconscionable. I was very happy that Dr Rice saw fit to have named a new ambassador," he said.
(More ... US ambassador delay 'unconscionable'. 22/04/2006. ABC News Online) ¶ 18:28 0 comments
A cabinet member from the first Bush administration says the length of time it has taken the United States Government to appoint a new ambassador to Australia is unconscionable.
US Justice Department lawyer Robert McCallum is going through the Senate confirmation process in the US to replace Tom Schieffer, who left the job 15 months ago.
The former US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, has told Lateline the delay has been unfortunate.
"It's been unconscionable. I was very happy that Dr Rice saw fit to have named a new ambassador," he said.
(More ... US ambassador delay 'unconscionable'. 22/04/2006. ABC News Online) ¶ 18:28 0 comments
Rove's New Mission: Survival (WashingtonPost.com)
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, April 21, 2006; Page A23
Here's the real meaning of the White House shake-up and the redefinition of Karl Rove's role in the Bush presidency: The administration's one and only domestic priority in 2006 is hanging on to control of Congress.
That, in turn, means that all the spin about Rove's power being diminished is simply wrong. Yes, Rove is giving up some policy responsibilities to concentrate on politics, but guess what: The possibility of President Bush's winning enactment of any major new policy initiative this year is zero. Rove is simply moving to where all the action will, of necessity, be.
As one outside adviser to the administration said, the danger of a Democratic takeover of at least one house of Congress looms large and would carry huge penalties for Bush. The administration fears "investigations of everything" by congressional committees, this adviser said, and the "possibility of a forced withdrawal from Iraq" through legislative action.
"I don't think they see much chance of accomplishing anything this year," said this Republican strategist, who preferred not to be quoted by name. "The bulk of their agenda, let's say, has been put on hold."
Rove never stopped being political, even when he had formal responsibility for policy. What's intriguing about the shift in the direction of Rove's energies is that it marks a turn from the high politics of a partisan realignment driven by ideas and policies to the more mundane politics of eking out votes, seat by seat and state by state. Most of Rove's grander dreams have died as the president's poll numbers have come crashing down.
(More ... Rove's New Mission: Survival) ¶ 13:35 0 comments
Friday, April 21, 2006; Page A23
Here's the real meaning of the White House shake-up and the redefinition of Karl Rove's role in the Bush presidency: The administration's one and only domestic priority in 2006 is hanging on to control of Congress.
That, in turn, means that all the spin about Rove's power being diminished is simply wrong. Yes, Rove is giving up some policy responsibilities to concentrate on politics, but guess what: The possibility of President Bush's winning enactment of any major new policy initiative this year is zero. Rove is simply moving to where all the action will, of necessity, be.
As one outside adviser to the administration said, the danger of a Democratic takeover of at least one house of Congress looms large and would carry huge penalties for Bush. The administration fears "investigations of everything" by congressional committees, this adviser said, and the "possibility of a forced withdrawal from Iraq" through legislative action.
"I don't think they see much chance of accomplishing anything this year," said this Republican strategist, who preferred not to be quoted by name. "The bulk of their agenda, let's say, has been put on hold."
Rove never stopped being political, even when he had formal responsibility for policy. What's intriguing about the shift in the direction of Rove's energies is that it marks a turn from the high politics of a partisan realignment driven by ideas and policies to the more mundane politics of eking out votes, seat by seat and state by state. Most of Rove's grander dreams have died as the president's poll numbers have come crashing down.
(More ... Rove's New Mission: Survival) ¶ 13:35 0 comments
The Great Revulsion (NYTimes.com)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 21, 2006
"I have a vision — maybe just a hope — of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country."
I wrote those words three years ago in the introduction to my column collection, "The Great Unraveling." It seemed a remote prospect at the time: Baghdad had just fallen to U.S. troops, and President Bush had a 70 percent approval rating.
Now the great revulsion has arrived. The latest Fox News poll puts Mr. Bush's approval at only 33 percent. According to the polling firm Survey USA, there are only four states in which significantly more people approve of Mr. Bush's performance than disapprove: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska. If we define red states as states where the public supports Mr. Bush, Red America now has a smaller population than New York City.
The proximate causes of Mr. Bush's plunge in the polls are familiar: the heck of a job he did responding to Katrina, the prescription drug debacle and, above all, the quagmire in Iraq.
But focusing too much on these proximate causes makes Mr. Bush's political fall from grace seem like an accident, or the result of specific missteps. That gets things backward. In fact, Mr. Bush's temporarily sky-high approval ratings were the aberration; the public never supported his real policy agenda.
(More ... The Great Revulsion - New York Times) ¶ 13:12 0 comments
Published: April 21, 2006
"I have a vision — maybe just a hope — of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country."
I wrote those words three years ago in the introduction to my column collection, "The Great Unraveling." It seemed a remote prospect at the time: Baghdad had just fallen to U.S. troops, and President Bush had a 70 percent approval rating.
Now the great revulsion has arrived. The latest Fox News poll puts Mr. Bush's approval at only 33 percent. According to the polling firm Survey USA, there are only four states in which significantly more people approve of Mr. Bush's performance than disapprove: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska. If we define red states as states where the public supports Mr. Bush, Red America now has a smaller population than New York City.
The proximate causes of Mr. Bush's plunge in the polls are familiar: the heck of a job he did responding to Katrina, the prescription drug debacle and, above all, the quagmire in Iraq.
But focusing too much on these proximate causes makes Mr. Bush's political fall from grace seem like an accident, or the result of specific missteps. That gets things backward. In fact, Mr. Bush's temporarily sky-high approval ratings were the aberration; the public never supported his real policy agenda.
(More ... The Great Revulsion - New York Times) ¶ 13:12 0 comments
4.21.2006
China Mistakenly Called by Taiwan's Name (SeattlePI.com)
Thursday, April 20, 2006 · Last updated 5:54 p.m. PT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The meeting between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao began with a gaffe Thursday when an announcer referred to China by the formal name of Taiwan, which China considers a rebellious province.
As Bush and Hu stood at attention outside the White House, an announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of the Republic of China, followed by the national anthem of the United States of America."
"Republic of China" is the formal name of the island 100 miles off the Chinese mainland. China is known formally as the People's Republic of China.
Taiwan is a most delicate issue for China. Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-governing island, which split from the mainland in 1949 as civil war ended on the mainland.
(More ... China mistakenly called by Taiwan's name) ¶ 18:42 0 comments
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The meeting between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao began with a gaffe Thursday when an announcer referred to China by the formal name of Taiwan, which China considers a rebellious province.
As Bush and Hu stood at attention outside the White House, an announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of the Republic of China, followed by the national anthem of the United States of America."
"Republic of China" is the formal name of the island 100 miles off the Chinese mainland. China is known formally as the People's Republic of China.
Taiwan is a most delicate issue for China. Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-governing island, which split from the mainland in 1949 as civil war ended on the mainland.
(More ... China mistakenly called by Taiwan's name) ¶ 18:42 0 comments
4.20.2006
The Pentagon's New Spies (RollingStone.com)
By Robert Dreyfuss
18 April 2006
The military has built a vast domestic-intelligence network to fight terrorism -- but it's using it to track students, grandmothers and others protesting the war
Last October, before the public learned that president Bush had secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without a court order, the Pentagon approached the Senate intelligence committee with an unprecedented request. Military officials wanted the authority to spy on U.S. citizens on American soil, without identifying themselves, in order to collect intelligence about about terrorist threats. The plan was so sweeping, according to congressional sources who reviewed it, that it would have permitted operatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency to spy on dissidents by posing as peace activists and infiltrating anti-war meetings.
Senators on both sides of the aisle refused to go along with the plan. "The Department of Defense should not be in the business of spying on law-abiding Americans -- period," said Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. In closed-door deliberations, the intelligence committee blocked the request.
In fact, however, the Pentagon has already assembled a nationwide domestic spying machine that goes far beyond the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of telephone and e-mail traffic. Operating in secret, the Defense Department is systematically gathering and analyzing intelligence on American citizens at home -- and a new Pentagon agency called Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is helping to coordinate the military's covert efforts with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
(More ... Rolling Stone : The Pentagon's New Spies) ¶ 20:09 0 comments
18 April 2006
The military has built a vast domestic-intelligence network to fight terrorism -- but it's using it to track students, grandmothers and others protesting the war
Last October, before the public learned that president Bush had secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without a court order, the Pentagon approached the Senate intelligence committee with an unprecedented request. Military officials wanted the authority to spy on U.S. citizens on American soil, without identifying themselves, in order to collect intelligence about about terrorist threats. The plan was so sweeping, according to congressional sources who reviewed it, that it would have permitted operatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency to spy on dissidents by posing as peace activists and infiltrating anti-war meetings.
Senators on both sides of the aisle refused to go along with the plan. "The Department of Defense should not be in the business of spying on law-abiding Americans -- period," said Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. In closed-door deliberations, the intelligence committee blocked the request.
In fact, however, the Pentagon has already assembled a nationwide domestic spying machine that goes far beyond the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of telephone and e-mail traffic. Operating in secret, the Defense Department is systematically gathering and analyzing intelligence on American citizens at home -- and a new Pentagon agency called Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is helping to coordinate the military's covert efforts with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
(More ... Rolling Stone : The Pentagon's New Spies) ¶ 20:09 0 comments
The Worst President in History? (RollingStone.com)
By Sean Wilentz
21 April 2006
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.
From time to time, after hours, I kick back with my colleagues at Princeton to argue idly about which president really was the worst of them all. For years, these perennial debates have largely focused on the same handful of chief executives whom national polls of historians, from across the ideological and political spectrum, routinely cite as the bottom of the presidential barrel. Was the lousiest James Buchanan, who, confronted with Southern secession in 1860, dithered to a degree that, as his most recent biographer has said, probably amounted to disloyalty -- and who handed to his successor, Abraham Lincoln, a nation already torn asunder? Was it Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, who actively sided with former Confederates and undermined Reconstruction? What about the amiably incompetent Warren G. Harding, whose administration was fabulously corrupt? Or, though he has his defenders, Herbert Hoover, who tried some reforms but remained imprisoned in his own outmoded individualist ethic and collapsed under the weight of the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Depression's onset? The younger historians always put in a word for Richard M. Nixon, the only American president forced to resign from office.
Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.
(More ... Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?) ¶ 19:38 0 comments
21 April 2006
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.
From time to time, after hours, I kick back with my colleagues at Princeton to argue idly about which president really was the worst of them all. For years, these perennial debates have largely focused on the same handful of chief executives whom national polls of historians, from across the ideological and political spectrum, routinely cite as the bottom of the presidential barrel. Was the lousiest James Buchanan, who, confronted with Southern secession in 1860, dithered to a degree that, as his most recent biographer has said, probably amounted to disloyalty -- and who handed to his successor, Abraham Lincoln, a nation already torn asunder? Was it Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, who actively sided with former Confederates and undermined Reconstruction? What about the amiably incompetent Warren G. Harding, whose administration was fabulously corrupt? Or, though he has his defenders, Herbert Hoover, who tried some reforms but remained imprisoned in his own outmoded individualist ethic and collapsed under the weight of the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Depression's onset? The younger historians always put in a word for Richard M. Nixon, the only American president forced to resign from office.
Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.
(More ... Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?) ¶ 19:38 0 comments
US-NZ Forum Not Expected to Provide Trade Talks Breakthrough (NZHerald.co.nz)
20.04.06 1.00pm
A United States-New Zealand partnership forum beginning in Washington tomorrow is not expected to provide a breakthrough and spark trade talks between the two countries.
The forum, described by organisers as an "unprecedented" gathering of business, government and academic leaders, begins on Friday morning (NZT).
Trade and Defence Minister Phil Goff will attend the forum after meeting with senior members of President George W Bush's administration including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield.
Mr Goff said the forum and the talks were an opportunity to reinforce the ties between the two countries, not the differences. He did not expect any immediate progress on a trade deal.
NZ-US Council executive director Stephen Jacobi told National Radio New Zealand had a problem convincing the US of the merits of a trade deal between the two countries.
"One of the reasons for this is that they say we represent a limited economic opportunity. So we are there to show that the opportunity is a lot bigger than they might think."
New Zealand, as a small country, struggled to get on the radar in Washington and the forum would help to lift the profile, he said.
(More ... US-NZ forum not expected to provide trade talks breakthrough - 20 Apr 2006 - National News) ¶ 19:29 0 comments
A United States-New Zealand partnership forum beginning in Washington tomorrow is not expected to provide a breakthrough and spark trade talks between the two countries.
The forum, described by organisers as an "unprecedented" gathering of business, government and academic leaders, begins on Friday morning (NZT).
Trade and Defence Minister Phil Goff will attend the forum after meeting with senior members of President George W Bush's administration including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield.
Mr Goff said the forum and the talks were an opportunity to reinforce the ties between the two countries, not the differences. He did not expect any immediate progress on a trade deal.
NZ-US Council executive director Stephen Jacobi told National Radio New Zealand had a problem convincing the US of the merits of a trade deal between the two countries.
"One of the reasons for this is that they say we represent a limited economic opportunity. So we are there to show that the opportunity is a lot bigger than they might think."
New Zealand, as a small country, struggled to get on the radar in Washington and the forum would help to lift the profile, he said.
(More ... US-NZ forum not expected to provide trade talks breakthrough - 20 Apr 2006 - National News) ¶ 19:29 0 comments
Justice Kennedy Goes Too Far (WashingtonPost.com)
EDITORIAL
Misreading the Constitution in a self-serving cause
Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Page A18
JUSTICE ANTHONY M. Kennedy has complained recently that editorial writers seem to mouth off on his opinions without having read them. So we listened to his congressional testimony about cameras in the Supreme Court chamber with particular care to make sure we understood him properly. The court's resistance to cameras is not news. Had Justice Kennedy stuck to the usual litany of objections -- as Justice Clarence Thomas did --his testimony would have been unobjectionable apart from being wrong. But the justice went a big and inappropriate step further, suggesting without quite saying that the separation of powers may forbid Congress from requiring the court to liberalize its policy on cameras.
Justice Thomas outlined the court's concerns: Cameras would negatively affect the quality of oral arguments and would reduce the anonymity of the justices, thereby raising security concerns. Then Justice Kennedy declared: "We've always taken the position in decided cases that it's not for the court to tell Congress how to conduct its proceedings. . . . And we feel very strongly that we have an intimate knowledge of the dynamics and the needs of the court. And we think that proposals which would mandate -- direct -- television in our court in every proceeding [are] inconsistent with that deference, that etiquette, that should apply between the branches." What exactly Justice Kennedy meant by this is opaque; later in the hearing, he responded to a House member's suggestion that Congress could, in fact, pass such a bill by stressing his use of the word "etiquette." Still, his words contain more than a whiff of a threat: Pass such a bill, and we may strike it down.
(More ... Justice Kennedy Goes Too Far) ¶ 08:16 0 comments
Misreading the Constitution in a self-serving cause
Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Page A18
JUSTICE ANTHONY M. Kennedy has complained recently that editorial writers seem to mouth off on his opinions without having read them. So we listened to his congressional testimony about cameras in the Supreme Court chamber with particular care to make sure we understood him properly. The court's resistance to cameras is not news. Had Justice Kennedy stuck to the usual litany of objections -- as Justice Clarence Thomas did --his testimony would have been unobjectionable apart from being wrong. But the justice went a big and inappropriate step further, suggesting without quite saying that the separation of powers may forbid Congress from requiring the court to liberalize its policy on cameras.
Justice Thomas outlined the court's concerns: Cameras would negatively affect the quality of oral arguments and would reduce the anonymity of the justices, thereby raising security concerns. Then Justice Kennedy declared: "We've always taken the position in decided cases that it's not for the court to tell Congress how to conduct its proceedings. . . . And we feel very strongly that we have an intimate knowledge of the dynamics and the needs of the court. And we think that proposals which would mandate -- direct -- television in our court in every proceeding [are] inconsistent with that deference, that etiquette, that should apply between the branches." What exactly Justice Kennedy meant by this is opaque; later in the hearing, he responded to a House member's suggestion that Congress could, in fact, pass such a bill by stressing his use of the word "etiquette." Still, his words contain more than a whiff of a threat: Pass such a bill, and we may strike it down.
(More ... Justice Kennedy Goes Too Far) ¶ 08:16 0 comments
4.19.2006
Documents Link Rumsfeld to Prisoner's Interrogation (Boston.com)
Questions raised about his knowledge of abuse
by Charlie Savage, (Boston) Globe Staff
Saturday, April 15, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld closely monitored the late 2002 interrogation of a key Guantanamo Bay prison detainee at the same time that the prisoner was subjected to treatment that a military investigator later called ''degrading and abusive," according to newly released documents.
The documents, portions of a December 2005 Army inspector general report, disclosed for the first time that Rumsfeld spoke weekly with the Guantanamo commander, Major Geoffrey Miller, about the progress of the interrogation of a Saudi man suspected of a connection to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The intense attention Rumsfeld and Miller were paying to the interrogation raises new questions about their later claims that they knew nothing about the tactics interrogators used, which included a range of physically intense and sexually humiliating techniques similar to those in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq.
The intense attention Rumsfeld and Miller were paying to the interrogation raises new questions about their later claims that they knew nothing about the tactics interrogators used, which included a range of physically intense and sexually humiliating techniques similar to those in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq.
(More ... Documents link Rumsfeld to prisoner's interrogation - The Boston Globe) ¶ 08:15 0 comments
by Charlie Savage, (Boston) Globe Staff
Saturday, April 15, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld closely monitored the late 2002 interrogation of a key Guantanamo Bay prison detainee at the same time that the prisoner was subjected to treatment that a military investigator later called ''degrading and abusive," according to newly released documents.
The documents, portions of a December 2005 Army inspector general report, disclosed for the first time that Rumsfeld spoke weekly with the Guantanamo commander, Major Geoffrey Miller, about the progress of the interrogation of a Saudi man suspected of a connection to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The intense attention Rumsfeld and Miller were paying to the interrogation raises new questions about their later claims that they knew nothing about the tactics interrogators used, which included a range of physically intense and sexually humiliating techniques similar to those in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq.
The intense attention Rumsfeld and Miller were paying to the interrogation raises new questions about their later claims that they knew nothing about the tactics interrogators used, which included a range of physically intense and sexually humiliating techniques similar to those in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq.
(More ... Documents link Rumsfeld to prisoner's interrogation - The Boston Globe) ¶ 08:15 0 comments
4.17.2006
Scientists Say They're Being Gagged by Bush (SFGate.com)
White House monitors their media contacts
Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Washington -- Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing.
Employees and contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with a U.S. Geological Survey scientist working at an NOAA lab, said in interviews that over the past year administration officials have chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether. Their accounts indicate that the ideological battle over climate-change research, which first came to light at NASA, is being fought in other federal science agencies as well.
These scientists -- working nationwide in research centers in such places as Princeton, N.J., and Boulder, Colo. -- say they are required to clear all media requests with administration officials, something they did not have to do until the summer of 2004. Before then, climate researchers -- unlike staff members in the Justice or State departments, which have long-standing policies restricting access to reporters -- were relatively free to discuss their findings without strict agency oversight.
(More ... Scientists say they're being gagged by Bush / White House monitors their media contacts) ¶ 19:28 0 comments
Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Washington -- Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing.
Employees and contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with a U.S. Geological Survey scientist working at an NOAA lab, said in interviews that over the past year administration officials have chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether. Their accounts indicate that the ideological battle over climate-change research, which first came to light at NASA, is being fought in other federal science agencies as well.
These scientists -- working nationwide in research centers in such places as Princeton, N.J., and Boulder, Colo. -- say they are required to clear all media requests with administration officials, something they did not have to do until the summer of 2004. Before then, climate researchers -- unlike staff members in the Justice or State departments, which have long-standing policies restricting access to reporters -- were relatively free to discuss their findings without strict agency oversight.
(More ... Scientists say they're being gagged by Bush / White House monitors their media contacts) ¶ 19:28 0 comments
4.16.2006
US-China Ties Under Strain Ahead of Hu-Bush Summit (Reuters.com)
Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:30pm ET
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. ties with China are becoming strained over security and economic issues after a relative calm, presenting a difficult challenge as President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao meet next week.
The two leaders are eager to keep disagreements over matters such as trade and China's military buildup from disrupting a relationship seen as central to international stability and economic well-being.
But experts expect only modest results from Hu's first presidential visit to Washington on April 20, and many are wary about the future as domestic political pressures grow for the United States to treat China as the next major adversary.
"U.S.-China relations are in difficult shape," said Daniel Blumenthal, a former Pentagon official now at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
"A lot of issues that had been submerged over the last few years have re-emerged, partly because the U.S. Congress has taken the lead on a number of economics issues, which has soured things," Blumenthal told Reuters.
(More ... US-China ties under strain ahead of Hu-Bush summit | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:30 0 comments
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. ties with China are becoming strained over security and economic issues after a relative calm, presenting a difficult challenge as President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao meet next week.
The two leaders are eager to keep disagreements over matters such as trade and China's military buildup from disrupting a relationship seen as central to international stability and economic well-being.
But experts expect only modest results from Hu's first presidential visit to Washington on April 20, and many are wary about the future as domestic political pressures grow for the United States to treat China as the next major adversary.
"U.S.-China relations are in difficult shape," said Daniel Blumenthal, a former Pentagon official now at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
"A lot of issues that had been submerged over the last few years have re-emerged, partly because the U.S. Congress has taken the lead on a number of economics issues, which has soured things," Blumenthal told Reuters.
(More ... US-China ties under strain ahead of Hu-Bush summit | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:30 0 comments
US Turns Back the Clock: Racially Segregated Schools Get OK (SMH.com.au)
April 16, 2006
FIFTY years after the US abolished segregated schools, the state of Nebraska has been accused of seeking to carve up its largest school district along broadly racial lines.
Under a new measure signed into law on Thursday by Governor Dave Heineman Omaha's highly regarded public school system will be divided into three racially distinct entities: African-American, Hispanic and white. The changes take effect from July 2008.
The division, proposed by the only African-American member of the state legislature, was adopted at breakneck speed.
Its provisions represent one of the most sweeping challenges to the desegregation of American state schools that was mandated by the US Supreme Court in 1954. Nebraska's Attorney-General has warned that it could be in violation of the US constitution, and would be challenged in the courts.
The measure has been opposed by a powerful coalition of business leaders - including Warren Buffett, the Omaha-based financier who is the world's second-richest man - as well as civil rights organisations.
"Basically, it is state-sanctioned segregation," said state senator Patrick Bourne who voted against the bill.
(More ... US turns back the clock: racially segregated schools get OK - World - smh.com.au) ¶ 20:58 0 comments
FIFTY years after the US abolished segregated schools, the state of Nebraska has been accused of seeking to carve up its largest school district along broadly racial lines.
Under a new measure signed into law on Thursday by Governor Dave Heineman Omaha's highly regarded public school system will be divided into three racially distinct entities: African-American, Hispanic and white. The changes take effect from July 2008.
The division, proposed by the only African-American member of the state legislature, was adopted at breakneck speed.
Its provisions represent one of the most sweeping challenges to the desegregation of American state schools that was mandated by the US Supreme Court in 1954. Nebraska's Attorney-General has warned that it could be in violation of the US constitution, and would be challenged in the courts.
The measure has been opposed by a powerful coalition of business leaders - including Warren Buffett, the Omaha-based financier who is the world's second-richest man - as well as civil rights organisations.
"Basically, it is state-sanctioned segregation," said state senator Patrick Bourne who voted against the bill.
(More ... US turns back the clock: racially segregated schools get OK - World - smh.com.au) ¶ 20:58 0 comments
4.15.2006
US Colonel Offers Iraq an Apology of Sorts for Devastation of Babylon (Independent.co.uk)
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 15 April 2006
In an act of at least partial contrition, an officer in charge of the US military occupation of Babylon in 2003 and 2004 has offered to make a formal apology for the destruction his troops wrought on the ancient site.
Colonel John Coleman, former chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, said yesterday that if the head of the Iraqi antiquities board wanted an apology, "if it makes him feel good, we can certainly give him one".
For more than a millennium, Babylon was one of the great cities of antiquity. It reached its greatest glory in the early 6th century BC, as the capital of Nebuchadnezzar II, builder of the celebrated Hanging Gardens.
Babylon declined and fell into ruin after it was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great in around 538BC. But no devastation seems to have matched that inflicted by US troops and their Polish allies after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
(More ... Independent Online Edition > Middle East) ¶ 15:06 0 comments
Published: 15 April 2006
In an act of at least partial contrition, an officer in charge of the US military occupation of Babylon in 2003 and 2004 has offered to make a formal apology for the destruction his troops wrought on the ancient site.
Colonel John Coleman, former chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, said yesterday that if the head of the Iraqi antiquities board wanted an apology, "if it makes him feel good, we can certainly give him one".
For more than a millennium, Babylon was one of the great cities of antiquity. It reached its greatest glory in the early 6th century BC, as the capital of Nebuchadnezzar II, builder of the celebrated Hanging Gardens.
Babylon declined and fell into ruin after it was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great in around 538BC. But no devastation seems to have matched that inflicted by US troops and their Polish allies after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
(More ... Independent Online Edition > Middle East) ¶ 15:06 0 comments
3 Degrees: Chief Scientist Warns Bigger Rise in World's Temperature Will Put 400 million At Risk (Independent.co.uk)
15 April 2006 15:00
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 15 April 2006
The world's temperature is on course to rise by more than three degrees Centigrade despite efforts to combat global warming, Britain's chief scientist has warned.
Sir David King issued a stark wake-up call that climate change could cause devastating consequences such as famine and drought for hundreds of millions of people unless the world's politicians take more urgent action.
Britain and the rest of the European Union have signed up to a goal of limiting the temperature rise to two degrees. In his strongest warning yet on the issue, Sir David suggested the EU limit will be exceeded.
According to computer-modelled predictions for the Government, a three-degree rise in temperatures could put 400 million more people at risk of hunger; leave between one and three billion more people at risk of water stress; cause cereal crop yields to fall by between 20 and 400 million tons; and destroy half the world's nature reserves.
Environmentalists warned that Greenland's ice cap could melt, raising sea levels by six metres. In Britain, the main threat would come from flooding and "coastal attack" as sea levels rose.
(More ... Independent Online Edition > Environment) ¶ 15:03 0 comments
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 15 April 2006
The world's temperature is on course to rise by more than three degrees Centigrade despite efforts to combat global warming, Britain's chief scientist has warned.
Sir David King issued a stark wake-up call that climate change could cause devastating consequences such as famine and drought for hundreds of millions of people unless the world's politicians take more urgent action.
Britain and the rest of the European Union have signed up to a goal of limiting the temperature rise to two degrees. In his strongest warning yet on the issue, Sir David suggested the EU limit will be exceeded.
According to computer-modelled predictions for the Government, a three-degree rise in temperatures could put 400 million more people at risk of hunger; leave between one and three billion more people at risk of water stress; cause cereal crop yields to fall by between 20 and 400 million tons; and destroy half the world's nature reserves.
Environmentalists warned that Greenland's ice cap could melt, raising sea levels by six metres. In Britain, the main threat would come from flooding and "coastal attack" as sea levels rose.
(More ... Independent Online Edition > Environment) ¶ 15:03 0 comments
Weapons of Math Destruction (NYTimes.com)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 14, 2006
Now it can be told: President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney based their re-election campaign on lies, damned lies and statistics.
The lies included Mr. Cheney's assertion, more than three months after intelligence analysts determined that the famous Iraqi trailers weren't bioweapons labs, that we were in possession of two "mobile biological facilities that can be used to produce anthrax or smallpox."
The damned lies included Mr. Bush's declaration, in his "Mission Accomplished" speech, that "we have removed an ally of Al Qaeda."
The statistics included Mr. Bush's claim, during his debates with John Kerry, that "most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans."
Compared with the deceptions that led us to war, deceptions about taxes can seem like a minor issue. But it's all of a piece. In fact, my early sense that we were being misled into war came mainly from the resemblance between the administration's sales pitch for the Iraq war — with its evasions, innuendo and constantly changing rationale — and the selling of the Bush tax cuts.
Moreover, the hysterical attacks the administration and its defenders launch against anyone who tries to do the math on tax cuts suggest that this is a very sensitive topic. For example, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa once compared people who say that 40 percent of the Bush tax cuts will go to the richest 1 percent of the population to, yes, Adolf Hitler.
(More ... Weapons of Math Destruction - New York Times) ¶ 15:01 0 comments
Published: April 14, 2006
Now it can be told: President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney based their re-election campaign on lies, damned lies and statistics.
The lies included Mr. Cheney's assertion, more than three months after intelligence analysts determined that the famous Iraqi trailers weren't bioweapons labs, that we were in possession of two "mobile biological facilities that can be used to produce anthrax or smallpox."
The damned lies included Mr. Bush's declaration, in his "Mission Accomplished" speech, that "we have removed an ally of Al Qaeda."
The statistics included Mr. Bush's claim, during his debates with John Kerry, that "most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans."
Compared with the deceptions that led us to war, deceptions about taxes can seem like a minor issue. But it's all of a piece. In fact, my early sense that we were being misled into war came mainly from the resemblance between the administration's sales pitch for the Iraq war — with its evasions, innuendo and constantly changing rationale — and the selling of the Bush tax cuts.
Moreover, the hysterical attacks the administration and its defenders launch against anyone who tries to do the math on tax cuts suggest that this is a very sensitive topic. For example, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa once compared people who say that 40 percent of the Bush tax cuts will go to the richest 1 percent of the population to, yes, Adolf Hitler.
(More ... Weapons of Math Destruction - New York Times) ¶ 15:01 0 comments
For Leading Exxon to Its Riches, $144,573 a Day (NYTimes.com)
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: April 15, 2006
For 13 years as chairman and chief executive, Lee R. Raymond propelled Exxon, the successor to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust, to the pinnacle of the oil world.
Under Mr. Raymond, the company's market value increased fourfold to $375 billion, overtaking BP as the largest oil company and General Electric as the largest American corporation. Net income soared from $4.8 billion in 1992 to last year's record setting $36.13 billion.
Shareholders benefited handsomely on Mr. Raymond's watch. The price of Exxon's shares rose an average of 13 percent a year. The company, now known as Exxon Mobil, paid $67 billion in total dividends.
For his efforts, Mr. Raymond, who retired in December, was compensated more than $686 million from 1993 to 2005, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant. That is $144,573 for each day he spent leading Exxon's "God pod," as the executive suite at the company's headquarters in Irving, Tex., is known.
Despite the company's performance, some Exxon shareholders, academics, corporate governance experts and consumer groups were taken aback when they learned for the first time this week the details of Mr. Raymond's total compensation package, including the more than $400 million he received in his final year at the company.
Shareholder advocates point to what they describe as stealth compensation arranged for Mr. Raymond but not disclosed in proxy filings. Consumer groups complain that, while last year's rise in global oil prices left many consumers feeling less prosperous, oil executives have become a lot richer from the higher prices. And some corporate governance experts argue that much of Mr. Raymond's pay came from easy profits generated by skyrocketing oil prices.
"It's entrepreneurial returns for managerial conduct," said Charles M. Elson, the director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "Exxon was there long before Mr. Raymond was there and will be there long after he leaves. Yet he received Rockefeller returns without taking the Rockefeller risk."
(More ... For Leading Exxon to Its Riches, $144,573 a Day - New York Times) ¶ 14:45 0 comments
Published: April 15, 2006
For 13 years as chairman and chief executive, Lee R. Raymond propelled Exxon, the successor to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust, to the pinnacle of the oil world.
Under Mr. Raymond, the company's market value increased fourfold to $375 billion, overtaking BP as the largest oil company and General Electric as the largest American corporation. Net income soared from $4.8 billion in 1992 to last year's record setting $36.13 billion.
Shareholders benefited handsomely on Mr. Raymond's watch. The price of Exxon's shares rose an average of 13 percent a year. The company, now known as Exxon Mobil, paid $67 billion in total dividends.
For his efforts, Mr. Raymond, who retired in December, was compensated more than $686 million from 1993 to 2005, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant. That is $144,573 for each day he spent leading Exxon's "God pod," as the executive suite at the company's headquarters in Irving, Tex., is known.
Despite the company's performance, some Exxon shareholders, academics, corporate governance experts and consumer groups were taken aback when they learned for the first time this week the details of Mr. Raymond's total compensation package, including the more than $400 million he received in his final year at the company.
Shareholder advocates point to what they describe as stealth compensation arranged for Mr. Raymond but not disclosed in proxy filings. Consumer groups complain that, while last year's rise in global oil prices left many consumers feeling less prosperous, oil executives have become a lot richer from the higher prices. And some corporate governance experts argue that much of Mr. Raymond's pay came from easy profits generated by skyrocketing oil prices.
"It's entrepreneurial returns for managerial conduct," said Charles M. Elson, the director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "Exxon was there long before Mr. Raymond was there and will be there long after he leaves. Yet he received Rockefeller returns without taking the Rockefeller risk."
(More ... For Leading Exxon to Its Riches, $144,573 a Day - New York Times) ¶ 14:45 0 comments
4.12.2006
Sheen Puts His Education Before Real-life Politics (Independent.co.uk)
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 11 April 2006
The US President has had enough. He is leaving the White House and will instead concentrate on improving his education - something he readily admits is lacking. As a sign of his new-found dedication to learning, he will travel to Ireland and enrol at university. Philosophy and English literature will be his thing.
Yes it is true, gentle reader. But only in that parallel world of Washington politics known as the West Wing. With the final season of the popular television series drawing to a close and with a successor having been elected to succeed (fictional) President Josiah Bartlet, the actor who plays him has decided to go back to school.
In that odd interface of reality and entertainment, Martin Sheen, 65, who has played President Bartlet for a full seven seasons, was urged by figures within the Democratic Party to make a real-life run for the Senate seat in his native state of Ohio. "I'm just not qualified," he reportedly said. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility."
Some would argue that Sheen's strident opposition to the war in Iraq and championing of human rights would make him an ideal Democratic candidate in autumn's Congressional elections. But Sheen, who says he only barely managed to complete high school, has instead decided to study at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. In addition to literature and philosophy, he hopes to study oceanography.
(More ... Independent Online Edition > Americas) ¶ 21:29 0 comments
Published: 11 April 2006
The US President has had enough. He is leaving the White House and will instead concentrate on improving his education - something he readily admits is lacking. As a sign of his new-found dedication to learning, he will travel to Ireland and enrol at university. Philosophy and English literature will be his thing.
Yes it is true, gentle reader. But only in that parallel world of Washington politics known as the West Wing. With the final season of the popular television series drawing to a close and with a successor having been elected to succeed (fictional) President Josiah Bartlet, the actor who plays him has decided to go back to school.
In that odd interface of reality and entertainment, Martin Sheen, 65, who has played President Bartlet for a full seven seasons, was urged by figures within the Democratic Party to make a real-life run for the Senate seat in his native state of Ohio. "I'm just not qualified," he reportedly said. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility."
Some would argue that Sheen's strident opposition to the war in Iraq and championing of human rights would make him an ideal Democratic candidate in autumn's Congressional elections. But Sheen, who says he only barely managed to complete high school, has instead decided to study at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. In addition to literature and philosophy, he hopes to study oceanography.
(More ... Independent Online Edition > Americas) ¶ 21:29 0 comments
Royal Society Attacks Teaching of Creationism as Science (Guardian.co.uk)
· Theory likened to belief that storks bring babies
· Teachers vote to ban state funding for faith schools
Duncan Campbell and Rebecca Smithers
Wednesday April 12, 2006
The Guardian
The Royal Society yesterday issued a strongly worded attack on the teaching of creationism as a leading scientist compared it to the theory that babies are brought by storks.
The warning from Britain's leading scientific academy comes amid increasing concern over the attempts by religious fundamentalists to challenge the theory of evolution in schools and colleges by teaching the idea that a god created the world, as if that were a scientific theory.
Teachers' unions yesterday also voted to ban further government funding for faith schools. However, delegates in Gateshead, attending the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, rejected proposals for new laws to prevent the growing influence of religious organisations in state education, including the teaching of creationism.
Last night, the Royal Society gave a public platform to Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, to deliver a lecture entitled Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution Is Right. Professor Jones said that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was "to me, rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks."
(More ... EducationGuardian.co.uk | News crumb | Royal Society attacks teaching of creationism as science) ¶ 21:23 0 comments
· Teachers vote to ban state funding for faith schools
Duncan Campbell and Rebecca Smithers
Wednesday April 12, 2006
The Guardian
The Royal Society yesterday issued a strongly worded attack on the teaching of creationism as a leading scientist compared it to the theory that babies are brought by storks.
The warning from Britain's leading scientific academy comes amid increasing concern over the attempts by religious fundamentalists to challenge the theory of evolution in schools and colleges by teaching the idea that a god created the world, as if that were a scientific theory.
Teachers' unions yesterday also voted to ban further government funding for faith schools. However, delegates in Gateshead, attending the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, rejected proposals for new laws to prevent the growing influence of religious organisations in state education, including the teaching of creationism.
Last night, the Royal Society gave a public platform to Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, to deliver a lecture entitled Why Creationism Is Wrong and Evolution Is Right. Professor Jones said that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was "to me, rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks."
(More ... EducationGuardian.co.uk | News crumb | Royal Society attacks teaching of creationism as science) ¶ 21:23 0 comments
Official Denies Link to Phone Plot (LATimes.com)
From the Associated Press
April 12, 2006
MANCHESTER, N.H. — A former White House political director denied Tuesday that he or anyone on his staff spoke with New England Republicans about a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002.
Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, acknowledged that local GOP officials had called a White House operative in the days surrounding the election. But he said none of the talks involved the phone-jamming incident.
"My staff and I regularly communicated with competitive congressional campaigns and Republican Party organizations," Mehlman said.
On Nov. 5, 2002, repeated hang-up calls jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center during a New Hampshire Senate race in which Republican John E. Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51% to 46%.
(More ... Official Denies Link to Phone Plot - Los Angeles Times) ¶ 20:49 0 comments
April 12, 2006
MANCHESTER, N.H. — A former White House political director denied Tuesday that he or anyone on his staff spoke with New England Republicans about a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002.
Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, acknowledged that local GOP officials had called a White House operative in the days surrounding the election. But he said none of the talks involved the phone-jamming incident.
"My staff and I regularly communicated with competitive congressional campaigns and Republican Party organizations," Mehlman said.
On Nov. 5, 2002, repeated hang-up calls jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center during a New Hampshire Senate race in which Republican John E. Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51% to 46%.
(More ... Official Denies Link to Phone Plot - Los Angeles Times) ¶ 20:49 0 comments
4.11.2006
Military Fantasies on Iran (NYTimes.com)
EDITORIAL
Published: April 11, 2006
Iraq shows just how badly things can go wrong when an administration rashly embraces simple military solutions to complicated problems, shutting its ears to military and intelligence professionals who turn out to be tragically prescient. That lesson has yet to be absorbed by the Bush administration, which is now reportedly honing plans for airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Congress and the country need to ask the administration just what is going on, and just what it hopes to accomplish by this latest saber rattling.
If the administration's real goal is to change minds in Iran and energize diplomacy, it is not going about it in a very smart way. If, instead, it intends to proceed with a bombing campaign when and if diplomacy fails, Congress and the public need to force the kind of serious national debate that never really took place before the American invasion of Iraq.
Routine contingency planning goes on all the time in the Pentagon, but the discussions on Iran seem to have progressed beyond this level, with high administration officials pushing the process and dropping indirect hints of possible future American military action in language that sometimes recalls statements made before the invasion of Iraq.
(More ... Military Fantasies on Iran - New York Times) ¶ 21:33 0 comments
Published: April 11, 2006
Iraq shows just how badly things can go wrong when an administration rashly embraces simple military solutions to complicated problems, shutting its ears to military and intelligence professionals who turn out to be tragically prescient. That lesson has yet to be absorbed by the Bush administration, which is now reportedly honing plans for airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Congress and the country need to ask the administration just what is going on, and just what it hopes to accomplish by this latest saber rattling.
If the administration's real goal is to change minds in Iran and energize diplomacy, it is not going about it in a very smart way. If, instead, it intends to proceed with a bombing campaign when and if diplomacy fails, Congress and the public need to force the kind of serious national debate that never really took place before the American invasion of Iraq.
Routine contingency planning goes on all the time in the Pentagon, but the discussions on Iran seem to have progressed beyond this level, with high administration officials pushing the process and dropping indirect hints of possible future American military action in language that sometimes recalls statements made before the invasion of Iraq.
(More ... Military Fantasies on Iran - New York Times) ¶ 21:33 0 comments
Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool (NYTimes.com)
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: April 11, 2006
XINZHUANG, China — This winter, Liu Xianhong's life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS.
The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth.
Then late last year, her story was publicized by a leading Chinese journalist, turning one woman's quest for compensation into a national cause célèbre for a new class of advocates who are using the country's legal system to fight for social justice.
Ms. Liu's experience, all but unimaginable as recently as two or three years ago, is increasingly common in China, where a once totalitarian system is facing growing pressure from a population that is awakening to the power of independent organization. Uncounted millions of Chinese, from the rich cities of the east to the impoverished countryside, are pushing an inflexible political system for redress over issues from shoddy health care and illegal land seizures to dire pollution and rampant official corruption.
Ms. Liu first sought help in November, after hearing rumors that she was about to be arrested here in her hometown in this dismal region of northern China for protesting her infection at the local Communist Party headquarters. She was brought to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the country's most famous site, by the politically aware employee of the blood bank in Xingtai who first publicly accused it of distributing contaminated blood to her and more than a thousand others.
There, amid the crowds of people who show up from all over China each morning to watch the flag-raising ceremony — and provide a measure of anonymity — Ms. Liu met Hu Jia, one of China's leading advocates for people with AIDS. It was the 32-year-old woman's introduction to the world of nongovernmental organizations, or NGO's, which are fighting for better treatment of people with the disease.
(More ... Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool - New York Times) ¶ 21:28 0 comments
Published: April 11, 2006
XINZHUANG, China — This winter, Liu Xianhong's life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS.
The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth.
Then late last year, her story was publicized by a leading Chinese journalist, turning one woman's quest for compensation into a national cause célèbre for a new class of advocates who are using the country's legal system to fight for social justice.
Ms. Liu's experience, all but unimaginable as recently as two or three years ago, is increasingly common in China, where a once totalitarian system is facing growing pressure from a population that is awakening to the power of independent organization. Uncounted millions of Chinese, from the rich cities of the east to the impoverished countryside, are pushing an inflexible political system for redress over issues from shoddy health care and illegal land seizures to dire pollution and rampant official corruption.
Ms. Liu first sought help in November, after hearing rumors that she was about to be arrested here in her hometown in this dismal region of northern China for protesting her infection at the local Communist Party headquarters. She was brought to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the country's most famous site, by the politically aware employee of the blood bank in Xingtai who first publicly accused it of distributing contaminated blood to her and more than a thousand others.
There, amid the crowds of people who show up from all over China each morning to watch the flag-raising ceremony — and provide a measure of anonymity — Ms. Liu met Hu Jia, one of China's leading advocates for people with AIDS. It was the 32-year-old woman's introduction to the world of nongovernmental organizations, or NGO's, which are fighting for better treatment of people with the disease.
(More ... Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool - New York Times) ¶ 21:28 0 comments
4.10.2006
Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi (WashingtonPost.com)
Jordanian Painted As Foreign Threat To Iraq's Stability
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 10, 2006; Page A01
The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends," said Harvey, who did not return phone calls seeking comment on his remarks.
(More ... Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi) ¶ 20:20 0 comments
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 10, 2006; Page A01
The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends," said Harvey, who did not return phone calls seeking comment on his remarks.
(More ... Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi) ¶ 20:20 0 comments
Young Officers Leaving Army at a High Rate (NYTimes.com)
By THOM SHANKER
Published: April 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 9 — Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers. Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing their five-year obligation.
It was the second year in a row of worsening retention numbers, apparently marking the end of a burst of patriotic fervor during which junior officers chose continued military service at unusually high rates.
Mirroring the problem among West Pointers, graduates of reserve officer training programs at universities are also increasingly leaving the service at the end of the four-year stint in uniform that follows their commissioning.
To entice more to stay, the Army is offering new incentives this year, including a promise of graduate school on Army time and at government expense to newly commissioned officers who agree to stay in uniform for three extra years. Other enticements include the choice of an Army job or a pick of a desirable location for a home post.
(More ... Young Officers Leaving Army at a High Rate - New York Times) ¶ 20:13 0 comments
Published: April 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 9 — Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers. Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing their five-year obligation.
It was the second year in a row of worsening retention numbers, apparently marking the end of a burst of patriotic fervor during which junior officers chose continued military service at unusually high rates.
Mirroring the problem among West Pointers, graduates of reserve officer training programs at universities are also increasingly leaving the service at the end of the four-year stint in uniform that follows their commissioning.
To entice more to stay, the Army is offering new incentives this year, including a promise of graduate school on Army time and at government expense to newly commissioned officers who agree to stay in uniform for three extra years. Other enticements include the choice of an Army job or a pick of a desirable location for a home post.
(More ... Young Officers Leaving Army at a High Rate - New York Times) ¶ 20:13 0 comments
Bush Critics Alarmed Over Reports of Possible Strike in Iran (AFP.com)
10/04/2006 05h48
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Critics of the George W. Bush administration expressed alarm about explosive new reports that the president is mulling military options to knock out Iran's nuclear program.
Retired General Anthony Zinni, the former head of US Central Command, told US television Sunday that he had no detailed knowledge of the alleged military plans, but he suggested a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear program would be extremely risky.
"Any military plan involving Iran is going to be very difficult. We should not fool ourselves to think it will just be a strike and then it will be over," said Zinni.
"The Iranians will retaliate, and they have many possibilities in an area where there are many vulnerabilities, from our troop positions to the oil and gas in the region that can be interrupted, to attacks on Israel, to the conduct of terrorism," he said.
Zinni made his remarks after the publication of a pair of reports this weekend saying that the administration is seriously considering military action against Iran, amid a stalemate in diplomatic efforts.
The New Yorker magazine reported in its April 17 issue that the administration is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key suspected Iranian nuclear weapons facility.
(More ... AFP - The News) ¶ 20:09 0 comments
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Critics of the George W. Bush administration expressed alarm about explosive new reports that the president is mulling military options to knock out Iran's nuclear program.
Retired General Anthony Zinni, the former head of US Central Command, told US television Sunday that he had no detailed knowledge of the alleged military plans, but he suggested a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear program would be extremely risky.
"Any military plan involving Iran is going to be very difficult. We should not fool ourselves to think it will just be a strike and then it will be over," said Zinni.
"The Iranians will retaliate, and they have many possibilities in an area where there are many vulnerabilities, from our troop positions to the oil and gas in the region that can be interrupted, to attacks on Israel, to the conduct of terrorism," he said.
Zinni made his remarks after the publication of a pair of reports this weekend saying that the administration is seriously considering military action against Iran, amid a stalemate in diplomatic efforts.
The New Yorker magazine reported in its April 17 issue that the administration is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key suspected Iranian nuclear weapons facility.
(More ... AFP - The News) ¶ 20:09 0 comments
NZ Extends Tour of Duty in Afghanistan (ABC.net.au)
Last Update: Monday, April 10, 2006. 4:13pm (AEST)
New Zealand will extend its deployment of troops to Afghanistan by another year to September 2007, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.
"I think the whole world community has an interest in Afghanistan not deteriorating as it did prior to September 11 as a haven for terrorist activities," she said.
New Zealand has 120 troops in a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Bamyan province and Defence Minister Phil Goff says the extension reflected the continuing need to support international security and reconstruction efforts.
Mr Goff says there is a lot of work to do before Afghanistan can maintain its own security.
"Violence from Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents increased in 2005 and warlordism and a growing trade in opium continue to destabilise Afghanistan and present major problems," he said.
"For international forces and contributions to cease now would risk a return by Afghanistan to being a failed state.
"That would have serious consequences for regional and international security and for New Zealand's own interests."
(More ... NZ extends tour of duty in Afghanistan. 10/04/2006. ABC News Online) ¶ 20:05 0 comments
New Zealand will extend its deployment of troops to Afghanistan by another year to September 2007, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.
"I think the whole world community has an interest in Afghanistan not deteriorating as it did prior to September 11 as a haven for terrorist activities," she said.
New Zealand has 120 troops in a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Bamyan province and Defence Minister Phil Goff says the extension reflected the continuing need to support international security and reconstruction efforts.
Mr Goff says there is a lot of work to do before Afghanistan can maintain its own security.
"Violence from Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents increased in 2005 and warlordism and a growing trade in opium continue to destabilise Afghanistan and present major problems," he said.
"For international forces and contributions to cease now would risk a return by Afghanistan to being a failed state.
"That would have serious consequences for regional and international security and for New Zealand's own interests."
(More ... NZ extends tour of duty in Afghanistan. 10/04/2006. ABC News Online) ¶ 20:05 0 comments
4.09.2006
Christ Among the Partisans (NYTimes.com)
By GARRY WILLS
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Published: April 9, 2006
THERE is no such thing as a "Christian politics." If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian. Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here" (John 18:36). Jesus brought no political message or program.
This is a truth that needs emphasis at a time when some Democrats, fearing that the Republicans have advanced over them by the use of religion, want to respond with a claim that Jesus is really on their side. He is not. He avoided those who would trap him into taking sides for or against the Roman occupation of Judea. He paid his taxes to the occupying power but said only, "Let Caesar have what belongs to him, and God have what belongs to him" (Matthew 22:21). He was the original proponent of a separation of church and state.
Those who want the state to engage in public worship, or even to have prayer in schools, are defying his injunction: "When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square, in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray there in hiding to your Father, and your Father who sees you in hiding will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-6). He shocked people by his repeated violation of the external holiness code of his time, emphasizing that his religion was an internal matter of the heart.
But doesn't Jesus say to care for the poor? Repeatedly and insistently, but what he says goes far beyond politics and is of a different order. He declares that only one test will determine who will come into his reign: whether one has treated the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the imprisoned as one would Jesus himself. "Whenever you did these things to the lowliest of my brothers, you were doing it to me" (Matthew 25:40). No government can propose that as its program. Theocracy itself never went so far, nor could it.
(More ... Christ Among the Partisans - New York Times) ¶ 21:01 0 comments
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Published: April 9, 2006
THERE is no such thing as a "Christian politics." If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian. Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here" (John 18:36). Jesus brought no political message or program.
This is a truth that needs emphasis at a time when some Democrats, fearing that the Republicans have advanced over them by the use of religion, want to respond with a claim that Jesus is really on their side. He is not. He avoided those who would trap him into taking sides for or against the Roman occupation of Judea. He paid his taxes to the occupying power but said only, "Let Caesar have what belongs to him, and God have what belongs to him" (Matthew 22:21). He was the original proponent of a separation of church and state.
Those who want the state to engage in public worship, or even to have prayer in schools, are defying his injunction: "When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square, in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray there in hiding to your Father, and your Father who sees you in hiding will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-6). He shocked people by his repeated violation of the external holiness code of his time, emphasizing that his religion was an internal matter of the heart.
But doesn't Jesus say to care for the poor? Repeatedly and insistently, but what he says goes far beyond politics and is of a different order. He declares that only one test will determine who will come into his reign: whether one has treated the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the imprisoned as one would Jesus himself. "Whenever you did these things to the lowliest of my brothers, you were doing it to me" (Matthew 25:40). No government can propose that as its program. Theocracy itself never went so far, nor could it.
(More ... Christ Among the Partisans - New York Times) ¶ 21:01 0 comments
U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran (WashingtonPost.com)
Any Mix of Tact, Threats Alarms Critics
By Peter Baker, Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 9, 2006; Page A01
The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S. officials and independent analysts.
No attack appears likely in the short term, and many specialists inside and outside the U.S. government harbor serious doubts about whether an armed response would be effective. But administration officials are preparing for it as a possible option and using the threat "to convince them this is more and more serious," as a senior official put it.
According to current and former officials, Pentagon and CIA planners have been exploring possible targets, such as the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan. Although a land invasion is not contemplated, military officers are weighing alternatives ranging from a limited airstrike aimed at key nuclear sites, to a more extensive bombing campaign designed to destroy an array of military and political targets.
Preparations for confrontation with Iran underscore how the issue has vaulted to the front of President Bush's agenda even as he struggles with a relentless war in next-door Iraq. Bush views Tehran as a serious menace that must be dealt with before his presidency ends, aides said, and the White House, in its new National Security Strategy, last month labeled Iran the most serious challenge to the United States posed by any country.
Many military officers and specialists, however, view the saber rattling with alarm. A strike at Iran, they warn, would at best just delay its nuclear program by a few years but could inflame international opinion against the United States, particularly in the Muslim world and especially within Iran, while making U.S. troops in Iraq targets for retaliation.
(More ... U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran) ¶ 20:41 0 comments
By Peter Baker, Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 9, 2006; Page A01
The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S. officials and independent analysts.
No attack appears likely in the short term, and many specialists inside and outside the U.S. government harbor serious doubts about whether an armed response would be effective. But administration officials are preparing for it as a possible option and using the threat "to convince them this is more and more serious," as a senior official put it.
According to current and former officials, Pentagon and CIA planners have been exploring possible targets, such as the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan. Although a land invasion is not contemplated, military officers are weighing alternatives ranging from a limited airstrike aimed at key nuclear sites, to a more extensive bombing campaign designed to destroy an array of military and political targets.
Preparations for confrontation with Iran underscore how the issue has vaulted to the front of President Bush's agenda even as he struggles with a relentless war in next-door Iraq. Bush views Tehran as a serious menace that must be dealt with before his presidency ends, aides said, and the White House, in its new National Security Strategy, last month labeled Iran the most serious challenge to the United States posed by any country.
Many military officers and specialists, however, view the saber rattling with alarm. A strike at Iran, they warn, would at best just delay its nuclear program by a few years but could inflame international opinion against the United States, particularly in the Muslim world and especially within Iran, while making U.S. troops in Iraq targets for retaliation.
(More ... U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran) ¶ 20:41 0 comments
US Considering Air Strikes on Iran (SMH.com.au)
April 9, 2006 - 10:33AM
The US administration is stepping up plans for a possible air strike on Iran, according to a report by influential investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
Hersh's story in the April 17 issue of the New Yorker magazine quotes former and current intelligence and defence officials as saying the administration increasingly sees "regime change" in Iran as the ultimate goal.
"This White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war," Hersh quotes an unidentified senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror as saying.
The report says the administration has stepped up clandestine activities in Iran and has initiated a series of talks on its plans with "a few key senators and members of Congress".
A former senior defence official is quoted as saying the military believes a sustained bombing campaign against Iran will humiliate the leadership and lead the Iranian public to overthrow it, adding that he was shocked to hear the strategy.
The report also says the US military is seriously considering the use of a tactical nuclear weapon against Iran to ensure the destruction of its main centrifuge plant at Natanz.
(More ... US considering air strikes on Iran - report - World - smh.com.au) ¶ 19:52 0 comments
The US administration is stepping up plans for a possible air strike on Iran, according to a report by influential investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
Hersh's story in the April 17 issue of the New Yorker magazine quotes former and current intelligence and defence officials as saying the administration increasingly sees "regime change" in Iran as the ultimate goal.
"This White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war," Hersh quotes an unidentified senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror as saying.
The report says the administration has stepped up clandestine activities in Iran and has initiated a series of talks on its plans with "a few key senators and members of Congress".
A former senior defence official is quoted as saying the military believes a sustained bombing campaign against Iran will humiliate the leadership and lead the Iranian public to overthrow it, adding that he was shocked to hear the strategy.
The report also says the US military is seriously considering the use of a tactical nuclear weapon against Iran to ensure the destruction of its main centrifuge plant at Natanz.
(More ... US considering air strikes on Iran - report - World - smh.com.au) ¶ 19:52 0 comments
4.08.2006
White House Does Not Dispute Leak Claim (Reuters.com)
Sat Apr 8, 2006 4:01 AM ET
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday left unchallenged a prosecutor's disclosure that President George W. Bush authorized a former top official, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share intelligence data on Iraq in 2003 with a reporter to counter Iraq war criticism.
Spokesman Scott McClellan insisted that Bush had the authority to declassify intelligence and rejected charges from Democrats that he did so selectively for political purposes.
"Declassifying information and providing it to the public when it is in the public interest is one thing," McClellan told reporters during a combative briefing. "But leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious, and there's a distinction."
Democrats seized on the issue, which has put Bush on the defensive at a time when his popularity is slumping and the Iraq war is increasingly unpopular. They accused the president, who has often spoken of the damage done by leaks, of hypocrisy.
"President Bush's selective declassification of highly sensitive intelligence for political purposes is wrong," said the House of Representatives Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:38 0 comments
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday left unchallenged a prosecutor's disclosure that President George W. Bush authorized a former top official, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share intelligence data on Iraq in 2003 with a reporter to counter Iraq war criticism.
Spokesman Scott McClellan insisted that Bush had the authority to declassify intelligence and rejected charges from Democrats that he did so selectively for political purposes.
"Declassifying information and providing it to the public when it is in the public interest is one thing," McClellan told reporters during a combative briefing. "But leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious, and there's a distinction."
Democrats seized on the issue, which has put Bush on the defensive at a time when his popularity is slumping and the Iraq war is increasingly unpopular. They accused the president, who has often spoken of the damage done by leaks, of hypocrisy.
"President Bush's selective declassification of highly sensitive intelligence for political purposes is wrong," said the House of Representatives Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:38 0 comments
For President, First a Leak; Now, a Jam (NYTimes.com)
NEWS ANALYSIS
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 7 — That President Bush authorized an aide to disclose classified intelligence on Iraqi weapons, as asserted in court papers, comes as no shock to official Washington. The leaking of secrets has long been a favored tool of policy debate, political combat and diplomatic one-upmanship.
"We've had leaking of this kind since the administration of George Washington," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.
But the accusation that Mr. Bush, through Vice President Dick Cheney, authorized the aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., to fight back against critics of the war by discussing a classified prewar intelligence estimate comes at a particularly awkward time for the administration.
And Mr. Libby's account, describing Mr. Bush's approving Mr. Cheney's request in 2003 that Mr. Libby, then the vice president's chief of staff, share reports on Iraqi weapons with a reporter for The New York Times, bares behind-the-scenes details that usually do not emerge until long after an administration has left office.
For months, Mr. Bush and his top aides have campaigned against leaks of classified information as a danger to the nation and as criminal acts. A Washington Post report on secret overseas jails run by the C.I.A. and a New York Times report on domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency have led to criminal investigations, and scores of intelligence officers have been ordered to take polygraph tests.
In that context, the report that the president was himself approving a leak may do serious political damage, said Mr. Shenkman, who has a blog on presidential politics. "It does give the public such a powerful example of hypocrisy that I think it might linger for a while," he said.
(More ... For President, First a Leak; Now, a Jam - New York Times) ¶ 21:32 0 comments
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 7 — That President Bush authorized an aide to disclose classified intelligence on Iraqi weapons, as asserted in court papers, comes as no shock to official Washington. The leaking of secrets has long been a favored tool of policy debate, political combat and diplomatic one-upmanship.
"We've had leaking of this kind since the administration of George Washington," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.
But the accusation that Mr. Bush, through Vice President Dick Cheney, authorized the aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., to fight back against critics of the war by discussing a classified prewar intelligence estimate comes at a particularly awkward time for the administration.
And Mr. Libby's account, describing Mr. Bush's approving Mr. Cheney's request in 2003 that Mr. Libby, then the vice president's chief of staff, share reports on Iraqi weapons with a reporter for The New York Times, bares behind-the-scenes details that usually do not emerge until long after an administration has left office.
For months, Mr. Bush and his top aides have campaigned against leaks of classified information as a danger to the nation and as criminal acts. A Washington Post report on secret overseas jails run by the C.I.A. and a New York Times report on domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency have led to criminal investigations, and scores of intelligence officers have been ordered to take polygraph tests.
In that context, the report that the president was himself approving a leak may do serious political damage, said Mr. Shenkman, who has a blog on presidential politics. "It does give the public such a powerful example of hypocrisy that I think it might linger for a while," he said.
(More ... For President, First a Leak; Now, a Jam - New York Times) ¶ 21:32 0 comments
Playing Hardball With Secrets (NYTimes.com)
EDITORIAL
Published: April 7, 2006
For more than two years, Senate Republicans have dragged out an investigation into how the Bush administration came to use bogus intelligence on Iraq to justify a war. A year ago, Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called it "a monumental waste of time" to consider whether the White House manipulated intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, the evidence has steadily mounted that President Bush and his team not only did that before the war, but kept right on doing it after the invasion. The most recent additions to this pile came yesterday, in reports by The New York Sun, The National Journal and other news organizations on documents from the case against Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who is charged with lying about the unmasking of Valerie Wilson, a covert C.I.A. agent.
According to these papers, Mr. Libby testified that President Bush authorized him to tell reporters about classified intelligence on Iraq as part of an effort to discredit Mrs. Wilson's husband, Joseph Wilson, a retired diplomat who had cast doubt on the claim that Iraq tried to acquire uranium for nuclear bombs from Niger. The National Journal reported that Mr. Libby has also said that Mr. Cheney authorized him to leak classified information before the invasion to make the case for war.
(More ... Playing Hardball With Secrets - New York Times) ¶ 21:29 0 comments
Published: April 7, 2006
For more than two years, Senate Republicans have dragged out an investigation into how the Bush administration came to use bogus intelligence on Iraq to justify a war. A year ago, Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called it "a monumental waste of time" to consider whether the White House manipulated intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, the evidence has steadily mounted that President Bush and his team not only did that before the war, but kept right on doing it after the invasion. The most recent additions to this pile came yesterday, in reports by The New York Sun, The National Journal and other news organizations on documents from the case against Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who is charged with lying about the unmasking of Valerie Wilson, a covert C.I.A. agent.
According to these papers, Mr. Libby testified that President Bush authorized him to tell reporters about classified intelligence on Iraq as part of an effort to discredit Mrs. Wilson's husband, Joseph Wilson, a retired diplomat who had cast doubt on the claim that Iraq tried to acquire uranium for nuclear bombs from Niger. The National Journal reported that Mr. Libby has also said that Mr. Cheney authorized him to leak classified information before the invasion to make the case for war.
(More ... Playing Hardball With Secrets - New York Times) ¶ 21:29 0 comments
4.06.2006
A Marine's Mother (WashingtonPost.com)
Wednesday, April 5, 2006; Page A21
Last August, Danielette James, 58, a federal custodian who cleans congressional offices five nights a week, unsuccessfully pleaded with her bosses for time off to welcome home her son, a Marine who was returning to Camp Lejeune, N.C., after seven months in Iraq.
In the end, James, unable to draw on the 172 hours of vacation time she had amassed, had to wait until a weekend for a two-day visit to North Carolina. (Her bosses at the Architect of the Capitol's office told The Washington Post at the time they had tried to meet her request.)
Over the weekend, the mother of six learned that her son, Eric McIntire, 27, had been killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad.
(More ... A Marine's Mother) ¶ 08:03 0 comments
Last August, Danielette James, 58, a federal custodian who cleans congressional offices five nights a week, unsuccessfully pleaded with her bosses for time off to welcome home her son, a Marine who was returning to Camp Lejeune, N.C., after seven months in Iraq.
In the end, James, unable to draw on the 172 hours of vacation time she had amassed, had to wait until a weekend for a two-day visit to North Carolina. (Her bosses at the Architect of the Capitol's office told The Washington Post at the time they had tried to meet her request.)
Over the weekend, the mother of six learned that her son, Eric McIntire, 27, had been killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad.
(More ... A Marine's Mother) ¶ 08:03 0 comments
2 Justices Indicate Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Televise Sessions (NYTimes.com)
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 4 — Television cameras are not about to enter the Supreme Court any time soon.
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, left, and Clarence Thomas appeared Tuesday before a House subcommittee hearing in Washington.
That was the unmistakable message that two Supreme Court justices gave Congress at a hearing on Tuesday on the court's budget.
Several members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, treasury, judiciary, and housing and urban development, which handles the judicial branch's annual appropriation, raised the issue of television after Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas had finished discussing the court's $76.4 million budget request.
Last year, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to require the Supreme Court to permit its arguments to be televised unless a majority of the justices voted to bar television on a case-by-case basis. Other proposals include mandating television access, or simply permitting and encouraging it.
Asked for his views on the subject, Justice Kennedy said it raised a "sensitive point" about the constitutional separation of powers.
(More ... 2 Justices Indicate Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Televise Sessions - New York Times) ¶ 07:55 0 comments
Published: April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 4 — Television cameras are not about to enter the Supreme Court any time soon.
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, left, and Clarence Thomas appeared Tuesday before a House subcommittee hearing in Washington.
That was the unmistakable message that two Supreme Court justices gave Congress at a hearing on Tuesday on the court's budget.
Several members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, treasury, judiciary, and housing and urban development, which handles the judicial branch's annual appropriation, raised the issue of television after Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas had finished discussing the court's $76.4 million budget request.
Last year, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to require the Supreme Court to permit its arguments to be televised unless a majority of the justices voted to bar television on a case-by-case basis. Other proposals include mandating television access, or simply permitting and encouraging it.
Asked for his views on the subject, Justice Kennedy said it raised a "sensitive point" about the constitutional separation of powers.
(More ... 2 Justices Indicate Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Televise Sessions - New York Times) ¶ 07:55 0 comments
4.05.2006
Massachusetts Passes Ambitious Health Care Plan (Reuters.com)
Wed Apr 5, 2006 12:25 AM ET
By Belinda Yu
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts lawmakers overwhelmingly approved an ambitious health-care bill on Tuesday that would make it the first U.S. state to require nearly all residents to be insured or face penalties.
The bill, which comes as traditional employer-based coverage is shrinking nationwide, will provide health care to about 95 percent of the state's half million uninsured residents by 2009, state officials said.
The Massachusetts policy holds both businesses and employees responsible for health care coverage. Businesses with more than 10 employees that do not provide coverage for all staff must pay a $295 fee annually per uninsured worker.
Under the legislation, which is expected to be approved by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, insurance agencies would expand health care coverage by offering state-subsidized, low-cost insurance plans with scaled-back benefits.
Romney, a Republican who may run for president in 2008, has indicated he would sign the bill into law.
"Some 500,000 citizens who go without insurance today will be taken care of," House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a Democrat, told the state Legislature to loud applause.
The plan comes at a time when about 46 million Americans are uninsured and there is growing concern across the country over the diminishing number of people who can afford the soaring cost of insurance premiums.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 22:04 0 comments
By Belinda Yu
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts lawmakers overwhelmingly approved an ambitious health-care bill on Tuesday that would make it the first U.S. state to require nearly all residents to be insured or face penalties.
The bill, which comes as traditional employer-based coverage is shrinking nationwide, will provide health care to about 95 percent of the state's half million uninsured residents by 2009, state officials said.
The Massachusetts policy holds both businesses and employees responsible for health care coverage. Businesses with more than 10 employees that do not provide coverage for all staff must pay a $295 fee annually per uninsured worker.
Under the legislation, which is expected to be approved by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, insurance agencies would expand health care coverage by offering state-subsidized, low-cost insurance plans with scaled-back benefits.
Romney, a Republican who may run for president in 2008, has indicated he would sign the bill into law.
"Some 500,000 citizens who go without insurance today will be taken care of," House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a Democrat, told the state Legislature to loud applause.
The plan comes at a time when about 46 million Americans are uninsured and there is growing concern across the country over the diminishing number of people who can afford the soaring cost of insurance premiums.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 22:04 0 comments
Amnesty Demands Public Inquiry on Rendition Flights (Guardian.co.uk)
Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday April 5, 2006
The Guardian
Amnesty International today calls for an independent public inquiry into all aspects of British involvement in secret CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights. The call comes as it reports details of more than 200 CIA flights passing through British airports.
It also reveals US efforts to ensure conditions and locations where detainees were held were kept secret. Four of the CIA's 26 planes have landed and taken off more than 200 times from British airports over the past five years, Amnesty says. They include Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh, Londonderry and Belfast. Others used are RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, Biggin Hill in Kent, and RAF Leuchars in Scotland, as well as the Turks and Caicos islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean.
Amnesty's report - Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and "Disappearance" - shows a pattern of nearly 1,000 flights directly linked to the CIA through "front" companies, most of which, it says, have used European airspace. A further 600 CIA flights were made by planes hired from US aviation companies.
Amnesty says detainees were abducted or handed over to US guards by other law enforcement agencies before being "disappeared". In what it says is the only detailed information to emerge from an Eastern European or Central Asian "black site" prison, detainees had described being prepared for transportation by black-masked "ninjas".
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Amnesty demands public inquiry on rendition flights) ¶ 21:58 0 comments
Wednesday April 5, 2006
The Guardian
Amnesty International today calls for an independent public inquiry into all aspects of British involvement in secret CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights. The call comes as it reports details of more than 200 CIA flights passing through British airports.
It also reveals US efforts to ensure conditions and locations where detainees were held were kept secret. Four of the CIA's 26 planes have landed and taken off more than 200 times from British airports over the past five years, Amnesty says. They include Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh, Londonderry and Belfast. Others used are RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, Biggin Hill in Kent, and RAF Leuchars in Scotland, as well as the Turks and Caicos islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean.
Amnesty's report - Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and "Disappearance" - shows a pattern of nearly 1,000 flights directly linked to the CIA through "front" companies, most of which, it says, have used European airspace. A further 600 CIA flights were made by planes hired from US aviation companies.
Amnesty says detainees were abducted or handed over to US guards by other law enforcement agencies before being "disappeared". In what it says is the only detailed information to emerge from an Eastern European or Central Asian "black site" prison, detainees had described being prepared for transportation by black-masked "ninjas".
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Amnesty demands public inquiry on rendition flights) ¶ 21:58 0 comments
America's War On the Web (SundayHerald.com)
While the US remains committed to hunting down al-Qaeda operatives, it is now taking the battle to new fronts. Deep within the Pentagon, technologies are being deployed to wage the war on terror on the internet, in newspapers and even through mobile phones.
Investigations editor Neil Mackay reports
02 April 2006
IMAGINE a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will.
In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday Herald.
The Pentagon has already signed off $383 million to force through the document’s recommendations by 2009. Military and intelligence sources in the US talk of “a revolution in the concept of warfare”. The report orders three new developments in America’s approach to warfare:
--Firstly, the Pentagon says it will wage war against the internet in order to dominate the realm of communications, prevent digital attacks on the US and its allies, and to have the upper hand when launching cyber-attacks against enemies.
--Secondly, psychological military operations, known as psyops, will be at the heart of future military action. Psyops involve using any media – from newspapers, books and posters to the internet, music, Blackberrys and personal digital assistants (PDAs) – to put out black propaganda to assist government and military strategy. Psyops involve the dissemination of lies and fake stories and releasing information to wrong-foot the enemy.
--Thirdly, the US wants to take control of the Earth’s electromagnetic spectrum, allowing US war planners to dominate mobile phones, PDAs, the web, radio, TV and other forms of modern communication. That could see entire countries denied access to telecommunications at the flick of a switch by America.
Freedom of speech advocates are horrified at this new doctrine, but military planners and members of the intelligence community embrace the idea as a necessary development in modern combat.
(More ... America's war on the web - [Sunday Herald]) ¶ 21:43 0 comments
Investigations editor Neil Mackay reports
02 April 2006
IMAGINE a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will.
In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday Herald.
The Pentagon has already signed off $383 million to force through the document’s recommendations by 2009. Military and intelligence sources in the US talk of “a revolution in the concept of warfare”. The report orders three new developments in America’s approach to warfare:
--Firstly, the Pentagon says it will wage war against the internet in order to dominate the realm of communications, prevent digital attacks on the US and its allies, and to have the upper hand when launching cyber-attacks against enemies.
--Secondly, psychological military operations, known as psyops, will be at the heart of future military action. Psyops involve using any media – from newspapers, books and posters to the internet, music, Blackberrys and personal digital assistants (PDAs) – to put out black propaganda to assist government and military strategy. Psyops involve the dissemination of lies and fake stories and releasing information to wrong-foot the enemy.
--Thirdly, the US wants to take control of the Earth’s electromagnetic spectrum, allowing US war planners to dominate mobile phones, PDAs, the web, radio, TV and other forms of modern communication. That could see entire countries denied access to telecommunications at the flick of a switch by America.
Freedom of speech advocates are horrified at this new doctrine, but military planners and members of the intelligence community embrace the idea as a necessary development in modern combat.
(More ... America's war on the web - [Sunday Herald]) ¶ 21:43 0 comments
4.04.2006
Obama Scolds Bush on Environment, Energy Proposals (ChicagoTribune.com)
Senator calls plans 'not a serious effort'
By John Chase
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 3, 2006, 10:27 PM CDT
Sen. Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on President Bush's environmental policies Monday, saying the president's recent plan to end the nation's reliance on oil was "not a serious effort" and that the world faces devastation if it doesn't address worsening climate changes.
Speaking in Chicago at a luncheon of The Associated Press, Obama (D-Ill.) said the U.S. government must invest more in renewable fuels, encourage advancements in the coal industry to reduce carbon emissions and place tighter restrictions on oil imports.
Obama said he initially was hopeful when Bush said during his State of the Union address in January that the U.S. must end its reliance on oil, "but then I saw the plan."
"His funding for renewable fuels is at the same level it was the day he took office. He refuses to call for even a modest increase in fuel-efficiency standards for cars. And his latest budget funds less than half of the energy bill that he himself signed into law—leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in underfunded energy proposals," Obama said.
"This is not a serious effort. Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping the 12-step program."
(More ... Chicago Tribune | Obama scolds Bush on environment, energy proposals) ¶ 22:11 0 comments
By John Chase
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 3, 2006, 10:27 PM CDT
Sen. Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on President Bush's environmental policies Monday, saying the president's recent plan to end the nation's reliance on oil was "not a serious effort" and that the world faces devastation if it doesn't address worsening climate changes.
Speaking in Chicago at a luncheon of The Associated Press, Obama (D-Ill.) said the U.S. government must invest more in renewable fuels, encourage advancements in the coal industry to reduce carbon emissions and place tighter restrictions on oil imports.
Obama said he initially was hopeful when Bush said during his State of the Union address in January that the U.S. must end its reliance on oil, "but then I saw the plan."
"His funding for renewable fuels is at the same level it was the day he took office. He refuses to call for even a modest increase in fuel-efficiency standards for cars. And his latest budget funds less than half of the energy bill that he himself signed into law—leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in underfunded energy proposals," Obama said.
"This is not a serious effort. Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping the 12-step program."
(More ... Chicago Tribune | Obama scolds Bush on environment, energy proposals) ¶ 22:11 0 comments
In Reversal, US Opts to Release Guatanamo Files (Reuters.com)
Mon Apr 3, 2006 7:11 PM ET13
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After four years of resisting disclosure of information on Guantanamo detainees, the Pentagon changed course on Monday and voluntarily released about 2,600 pages of documents relating to numerous prisoners.
The Pentagon generally has refused to release documents identifying the foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing security concerns such as keeping groups like al Qaeda in the dark about who is being imprisoned.
"It is an attempt to be transparent," Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said of the document release.
The Pentagon disclosed transcripts of military hearings from the second half of 2005 reviewing detainees' detention, and submissions made by their lawyers. This comes a month after it released 5,000 pages of documents under a judge's order in a freedom of information suit brought by a news organization.
Whitman told reporters they raised "interesting points, valid points" when asking if the Pentagon, by releasing the latest documents, was giving up its own previous national security concerns.
But he said that in light of losing its fight to withhold the other documents in the case filed by the Associated Press, the Pentagon "has determined that it's prudent to go ahead and release" documents not covered by the judge's previous order.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:08 0 comments
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After four years of resisting disclosure of information on Guantanamo detainees, the Pentagon changed course on Monday and voluntarily released about 2,600 pages of documents relating to numerous prisoners.
The Pentagon generally has refused to release documents identifying the foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing security concerns such as keeping groups like al Qaeda in the dark about who is being imprisoned.
"It is an attempt to be transparent," Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said of the document release.
The Pentagon disclosed transcripts of military hearings from the second half of 2005 reviewing detainees' detention, and submissions made by their lawyers. This comes a month after it released 5,000 pages of documents under a judge's order in a freedom of information suit brought by a news organization.
Whitman told reporters they raised "interesting points, valid points" when asking if the Pentagon, by releasing the latest documents, was giving up its own previous national security concerns.
But he said that in light of losing its fight to withhold the other documents in the case filed by the Associated Press, the Pentagon "has determined that it's prudent to go ahead and release" documents not covered by the judge's previous order.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:08 0 comments
Tom DeLay Plans to Resign From Congress (WashingtonPost.com)
By DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; 3:18 AM
WASHINGTON -- Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom Delay intends to resign from Congress within weeks, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.
Republican officials said Monday night they expect the Texan to quit his seat later this spring. He was first elected in 1984, and conceded he faced a difficult race for re-election.
"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year.
But Democrats said the developments marked more than the end to one man's career in Congress.
"Tom DeLay's decision to leave Congress is just the latest piece of evidence that the Republican Party is a party in disarray, a party out of ideas and out of energy," said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
(More ... Tom DeLay Plans to Resign From Congress) ¶ 21:03 0 comments
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; 3:18 AM
WASHINGTON -- Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom Delay intends to resign from Congress within weeks, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.
Republican officials said Monday night they expect the Texan to quit his seat later this spring. He was first elected in 1984, and conceded he faced a difficult race for re-election.
"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year.
But Democrats said the developments marked more than the end to one man's career in Congress.
"Tom DeLay's decision to leave Congress is just the latest piece of evidence that the Republican Party is a party in disarray, a party out of ideas and out of energy," said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
(More ... Tom DeLay Plans to Resign From Congress) ¶ 21:03 0 comments
US Should Realise Its Duties: Gorbachev (IBNLive.com)
Press Trust Of India
Posted Monday , April 03, 2006 at 19:12
Updated Tuesday , April 04, 2006 at 10:41
New York: Criticising the United States for getting "intoxicated" by its position as the world's only superpower, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has asked Washington to realise that it also has responsibilities.
In an interview to be published in the upcoming issue of Time magazine, Gorbachev said the United States cannot impose its will on others. And the talk of pre-emptive strikes, of ignoring the UN Security Council and international legal obligations are leading towards a "dark night" he added.
Some people, he emphasised, might be pushing President George W Bush in the wrong direction but he rejected the suggestion that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was one of them.
(More ... IBNLive : US should realise its duties: Gorbachev) ¶ 20:43 0 comments
Posted Monday , April 03, 2006 at 19:12
Updated Tuesday , April 04, 2006 at 10:41
New York: Criticising the United States for getting "intoxicated" by its position as the world's only superpower, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has asked Washington to realise that it also has responsibilities.
In an interview to be published in the upcoming issue of Time magazine, Gorbachev said the United States cannot impose its will on others. And the talk of pre-emptive strikes, of ignoring the UN Security Council and international legal obligations are leading towards a "dark night" he added.
Some people, he emphasised, might be pushing President George W Bush in the wrong direction but he rejected the suggestion that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was one of them.
(More ... IBNLive : US should realise its duties: Gorbachev) ¶ 20:43 0 comments
US Rep. Tom DeLay Ready to Call It Quits - Aides (Reuters.com)
Tue Apr 4, 2006 2:28 AM ET
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, one of the most powerful members of Congress, is now ready to call it quits in the face of mounting legal problems and a tough reelection campaign.
Twelve years after helping Republicans win control of the House of Representatives, the former majority leader, long called "The Hammer" for his hardball political tactics, intends on Tuesday to announce he is ending his bid for a 12th term and will leave Congress as early as next month, party aides said.
DeLay's decision highlights the problems faced by President George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in the scandal-rocked Congress.
"Tom DeLay's announcement is just the beginning of the reckoning of the Republican culture of corruption that has gripped Washington for too long," Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney said.
(More ... Stock Market News and Investment Information | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:31 0 comments
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, one of the most powerful members of Congress, is now ready to call it quits in the face of mounting legal problems and a tough reelection campaign.
Twelve years after helping Republicans win control of the House of Representatives, the former majority leader, long called "The Hammer" for his hardball political tactics, intends on Tuesday to announce he is ending his bid for a 12th term and will leave Congress as early as next month, party aides said.
DeLay's decision highlights the problems faced by President George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in the scandal-rocked Congress.
"Tom DeLay's announcement is just the beginning of the reckoning of the Republican culture of corruption that has gripped Washington for too long," Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney said.
(More ... Stock Market News and Investment Information | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:31 0 comments
Justices, 6-3, Sidestep Ruling on Padilla Case (NYTimes.com)
By DAVID STOUT
Published: April 3, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 3 — A sharply split Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from the terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, leaving undecided for now deeper questions about the Bush administration's handling of detainees since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Six justices were sufficiently persuaded, at least for the time being, that Mr. Padilla's appeal is moot, since he was transferred from military custody to a civilian jail several months ago and is to go on trial. The federal government indicted him last fall on terrorism charges that could bring him a sentence of life in prison if he is convicted.
The administration had argued that since Mr. Padilla was going to get a trial, there was no need for the Supreme Court to rule on his appeal of a lower court order upholding the administration's authority to keep him in open-ended military detention as an enemy combatant.
The six justices who agreed today to defer consideration of the finding of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
But there were hints of an internal struggle among the justices. For one thing, several justices took the somewhat unusual step of issuing opinions related to the court's order not to take a case. More commonly, when refusing to take a case, the court simply issues an order without comment.
The three justices who said the Supreme Court should have taken the case were Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.
(More ... Justices, 6-3, Sidestep Ruling on Padilla Case - New York Times) ¶ 08:00 0 comments
Published: April 3, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 3 — A sharply split Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from the terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, leaving undecided for now deeper questions about the Bush administration's handling of detainees since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Six justices were sufficiently persuaded, at least for the time being, that Mr. Padilla's appeal is moot, since he was transferred from military custody to a civilian jail several months ago and is to go on trial. The federal government indicted him last fall on terrorism charges that could bring him a sentence of life in prison if he is convicted.
The administration had argued that since Mr. Padilla was going to get a trial, there was no need for the Supreme Court to rule on his appeal of a lower court order upholding the administration's authority to keep him in open-ended military detention as an enemy combatant.
The six justices who agreed today to defer consideration of the finding of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
But there were hints of an internal struggle among the justices. For one thing, several justices took the somewhat unusual step of issuing opinions related to the court's order not to take a case. More commonly, when refusing to take a case, the court simply issues an order without comment.
The three justices who said the Supreme Court should have taken the case were Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.
(More ... Justices, 6-3, Sidestep Ruling on Padilla Case - New York Times) ¶ 08:00 0 comments
4.03.2006
John and Jerry (NYTimes.com)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 3, 2006
Well, I'll be damned. At least, that's what the Rev. Jerry Falwell says. Last month Mr. Falwell issued a statement explaining that, in his view, Jews can't go to heaven unless they convert to Christianity. And what Mr. Falwell says matters — maybe not in heaven, but here on earth. After all, he's a kingmaker in today's Republican Party.
Senator John McCain obviously believes that he can't get the Republican presidential nomination without Mr. Falwell's approval. During the 2000 campaign, Mr. McCain denounced Mr. Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." But next month Mr. McCain will be a commencement speaker at Liberty University, which Mr. Falwell founded.
On "Meet the Press" yesterday, Mr. McCain was asked to explain his apparent flip-flop. "I believe," he replied, "that the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican Party. One reason is because they're so active and their followers are. And I believe they have a right to be a part of our party."
So what has happened since the 2000 campaign to convince Mr. McCain that Mr. Falwell is not, in fact, an agent of intolerance?
(More ... John and Jerry - New York Times) ¶ 18:26 0 comments
Published: April 3, 2006
Well, I'll be damned. At least, that's what the Rev. Jerry Falwell says. Last month Mr. Falwell issued a statement explaining that, in his view, Jews can't go to heaven unless they convert to Christianity. And what Mr. Falwell says matters — maybe not in heaven, but here on earth. After all, he's a kingmaker in today's Republican Party.
Senator John McCain obviously believes that he can't get the Republican presidential nomination without Mr. Falwell's approval. During the 2000 campaign, Mr. McCain denounced Mr. Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." But next month Mr. McCain will be a commencement speaker at Liberty University, which Mr. Falwell founded.
On "Meet the Press" yesterday, Mr. McCain was asked to explain his apparent flip-flop. "I believe," he replied, "that the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican Party. One reason is because they're so active and their followers are. And I believe they have a right to be a part of our party."
So what has happened since the 2000 campaign to convince Mr. McCain that Mr. Falwell is not, in fact, an agent of intolerance?
(More ... John and Jerry - New York Times) ¶ 18:26 0 comments
4.02.2006
Gen. Clark: Bush Took U.S. on 'Path to Nowhere' (CNN.com)
Ex-NATO head slams Iraq war, failure to stop nukes, find bin Laden
Saturday, April 1, 2006; Posted: 1:34 p.m. EST (18:34 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark accused the Bush administration Saturday of taking the nation on a "path to nowhere" with misguided moves on national security.
The retired Army general and NATO military commander argued in the Democrats' weekly radio address that the United States needs a new plan to win the war on terror after failing to find September 11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq and stumbling in halting weapons proliferation in North Korea and Iran.
Clark coupled his criticism of President Bush's policies with a renewed call for the Democratic plan on national security that party leaders unveiled this week.
Portrayed by opponents as weak on national security, Democrats contend that they've cut into the Republican advantage in this midterm-election year based on White House missteps on Iraq and ports security.
"This administration has taken us on a path to nowhere -- replete with hyped intelligence, macho slogans and an incredible failure to see the obvious," Clark said in the broadcast.
(Listen to Gen. Clark talk about the 'tragic incompetence' of the Bush administration)
(More ... CNN.com - Gen. Clark: Bush took U.S. on 'path to nowhere' - Apr 1, 2006) ¶ 17:25 0 comments
Saturday, April 1, 2006; Posted: 1:34 p.m. EST (18:34 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark accused the Bush administration Saturday of taking the nation on a "path to nowhere" with misguided moves on national security.
The retired Army general and NATO military commander argued in the Democrats' weekly radio address that the United States needs a new plan to win the war on terror after failing to find September 11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq and stumbling in halting weapons proliferation in North Korea and Iran.
Clark coupled his criticism of President Bush's policies with a renewed call for the Democratic plan on national security that party leaders unveiled this week.
Portrayed by opponents as weak on national security, Democrats contend that they've cut into the Republican advantage in this midterm-election year based on White House missteps on Iraq and ports security.
"This administration has taken us on a path to nowhere -- replete with hyped intelligence, macho slogans and an incredible failure to see the obvious," Clark said in the broadcast.
(Listen to Gen. Clark talk about the 'tragic incompetence' of the Bush administration)
(More ... CNN.com - Gen. Clark: Bush took U.S. on 'path to nowhere' - Apr 1, 2006) ¶ 17:25 0 comments
